I spent today (7/28/17) visiting dear friends who live in the Harper’s Ferry area. I have eased back into my second week of my grant, and had wanted to head back to the Winchester area to see if there was anything else I needed to see. However, the rainy day was a damper on plans to explore some other areas. Still, my friend suggested we explore the Washington Monument, so we headed over to Washington Monument State Park in Middletown, Maryland.

The history

This hidden treasure is the first monument to Washington, erected by the people of Boonsboro, Maryland, on July 4, 1827. At the end of the day, they had stacked stones to create a 15 foot monument on a 54 foot base. (It was later raised to 30 feet.). They read the Declaration of Independence, and the monument received a gun salute by veterans of the Revolutionary War. While the monument did fall into disrepair over time, it was used as a signal tower by the Union army during the Civil War and was preserved and restored by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in 1936.

Our view from the top…😩

The ranger at the Museum explained that this area loved George Washington, who had crossed many times through surveying and the French-Indian War. He explained that Route 40 was actually George Washington’s idea (pushed through Congress by Jefferson) for the National Road because he’d been travelling the Indian trails through here so much. So, though I wasn’t expecting to literally “walk where Washington did,” I had the experience of seeing his trails and the simple way he was honored by the people of a small town who had loved him. It was a blessing indeed.